Structure characterization of melt drawn polyethylene ultrathin films

Highly oriented ultrathin polyethylene (PE) films were prepared by a melt-draw technique. Transmission electron microscopy study on the obtained ultrathin films indicates that the melt drawn PE thin films consist of highly oriented edge-on lamellae aligned perpendicular to the drawing direction. Electron diffraction confirms that the PE chains in crystal-line phase are highly oriented in film plane along the drawing direction, while only a random orientation of the crystallographic a-and b-axes can be described through electron diffraction. The IR results on the melt-drawn ultrathin PE films demonstrate that the PE molecular chains in both crystalline and amorphous phases of the melt drawn thin films are well oriented along the drawing direction. Moreover, the IR results indicate that in the crystalline phase, the crystallographic b-axis tend to lie in the thin film plane, while in the amorphous phase, the skeleton plane of some local chains prefers to parallel the film plane. The alignment of b-axis of PE crystals in ultrathin films originates from the fact that the b-axis is the fastest growth direction of the PE crystals.